Parenting

Full of helpful advice for families starting to think about their child's bat or bar mitzvah, Bar & Bat Mitzvah For The Interfaith Family will be a helpful primer to all families (not just interfaith!).

Hanukkah Booklet

This booklet explains the history of Hanukkah, the symbolism and significance of lighting candles for eight nights, the blessings that accompany the lighting of the candles, the holiday's foods, the game of dreidels, and more!

Organizations

Connecting Interfaith Families to Jewish Life in Greater Cleveland by providing programs and opportunities for interfaith families to experience Judaism in a variety of venues, meet other interfaith families, and to connect to other Jewish organizations that may serve their needs.

For Program Providers

A great way for Jewish professionals and volunteers who work with and provide programming for people in interfaith relationships to locate resources and trainings to build more welcome into their Jewish communities; connect with and learn from each other; and publicize and enhance their programs and services.

Blogs

electronic_newsletter_9-1-09

Dear Friend,

School starts for my son this week and Rosh Hashanah is in a little more than two weeks. Have you made your Rosh Hashanah plans? (Do I sound like your mom? Sorry!)

This is a great time to consult our new organizations search tool to find an interfaith-family friendly synagogue. That may be one way to find a place that's not only friendly, but spiritual overall--it's not a surprise when an interfaith-friendly synagogue has other things going for it, too.

Marriage and Relationships

Cassie Havel Morgenstern did not expect that her Christian and Jewish friends and relatives were going to be harder on her relationship after the wedding, as she writes in Lessons of Respect from My Year of Marriage.

Growing Up in an Interfaith Family

I cannot possibly do justice to how funny Vicki Boykis is in this book review of Sana Krasikov's One More Year, Everyone Suffering From the Same Toothache. She chalks it up to being the child of an interfaith Russian and Russian-Jewish immigrant family. I had fun just editing this one!

Bar and Bat Mitzvah

After his parents' divorce, Chaim Sodi's dad stopped identifying as a Jew--but he still wanted to be a good dad to his son as he was in Sodi's story. You'll have to read Becoming a Jewish Man to understand the significance of the cheesecake in the photo.

After I blogged about some shiny new books, including one on arts and crafts for the Jewish holidays, people asked for More about Jewish Arts and Crafts, so I obliged with some of my favorite internet resources.

Judaism and Catholicism

According to the Pew Forum U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, most Jews in interfaith marriages are married to Catholics. In "I do not think it means what you think it means", I wrote about Jewish reaction to a recent United States Conference of Catholic Bishops statement on Catholic-Jewish relations.

If the interfaith dialogue story highlights Jewish and Catholic cultural differences, Andi Rosenthal's Balancing the Books shows their similarities. During the month before Rosh Hashanah, we have an opportunity to concentrate on these shared values of being able to repent from bad deeds and turning toward good ones.

Hebrew for "Head of the Year," the Jewish New Year. With Yom Kippur, known as the High Holy Days.Hebrew and Yiddish for "good luck," a phrase used to express congratulations for happy and significant occasions.Derived from the Greek word for "assembly," a Jewish house of prayer. Synagogue refers to both the room where prayer services are held and the building where it occurs. In Yiddish, "shul." Reform synagogues are often called "temple."A language of West Semitic origins, culturally considered to be the language of the Jewish people. Ancient or Classical Hebrew is the language of Jewish prayer or study. Modern Hebrew was developed in the late-19th and early 20th centuries as a revival language; today it is spoken by most Israelis. Hebrew for "cupboard" or "closet," it usually refers to the ark, a structure that houses the Torah(s) in a synagogue.